At this year’s Steam Summer Festival there are over 100 adventure game demos running until June 22. While it’s not possible for us to play all the demos, below we will write our thoughts on the demos that we did manage to play. Happy adventuring!
Nine Noir Live
In this one hour demo, something’s afoot in Meow Meow Furrington and it’s up to Cuddles Nutterbutter, second choice feline detective who sounds like Deadpool would sound if he were a cat. This is a charming and funny animal detective game where you can lick any object you see and try and gain access to the club in order to investigate the murder. While the game doesn’t yet show the main puzzles we will need to resolve the developers have promised they will be challenging but logical and fun. Early signs are that this could well turn out to be up there with top adventure games of the year when it’s released in early 2021.
ASYLUM
Usually people want to escape from an asylum. But in this case you need to enter the asylum. When you arrive you find it is surprisingly occupied and your first puzzle is to convince the receptionist to allow you to enter. However after entering you realise that maybe you shouldn’t have come after all…
This game is an old school first person node based (remember those?) exploration adventure game from the creators of the cult hit Scratches. From the beginning you can tell this game is inspired by 90’s cinema. There was one puzzle in this 60 minute demo and several rooms to explore. The asylum is a dingy place which makes the player feel dirty just being there. There was no voice acting in the demo but the developers have assured us the characters will be all be fully voiced come release. We may have just scratched the surface with this demo but this game looks to be an instant purchase on day of release.